The present invention relates to visualizations for interactive collaborative information and, in particular, to systems and methods for visualizing relationships in information relating to computer network interaction media.
There are a wide variety of computer network interaction media, including email and email lists, conferencing systems and bulletin boards, chats, multi-user dungeons (MUDs), multi-user games and graphical virtual worlds. These network interaction media are used singly and in concert to create an increasing number of social cyberspaces that allow groups of people to gather on-line and interact with each other.
While network interaction media are becoming increasingly popular, there are a number of problems and difficulties facing the users of such media. The interaction context, or information, about the kind of space, group, and activity taking place in these media are frequently missing or ambiguous. This makes finding groups to participate in and people to interact with difficult. The history and structure of groups often become apparent only after extended participation. As a result, many of these media remain complex and confusingly tangled spaces in which it is difficult for users to navigate and participate.
One example of such an interaction medium or environment is Usenet, which is a collection of messages, referred to as posts, available through the Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP). The posts available through NNTP are organized into newsgroups that are named according to a hierarchical name convention. At the highest level are 15 or more general categories, such as rec, comp, alt, sci, etc., that identify the general subject (i.e., recreation, computer, alternative, science, etc.) of a set of newsgroups. Additional terms are added hierarchically to uniquely define a newsgroup within a collection of others (e.g., comp.lang.per.misc or rec.pets.misc.kids.pregnancy).
Many posts reference or reply to another post. As an organizational aid, posts that reference or reply to another post are nested or positioned directly under it to form a xe2x80x9cthread.xe2x80x9d Threads are, organizational trees with an initial post at a top level and branches to all the responsive posts, which may themselves have branches as well. Some posts are copied or cross-posted to more than one newsgroup. A post with no responses or branches is sometimes called xe2x80x9cbarren.xe2x80x9d
Usenet is a widely available and widely used communication resource. As a consequence of this wide availability, at least some parts of Usenet suffer from over- or mis-use that can obscure or bury useful information in a newsgroup. For example, some newsgroups suffer from off-topic and poorly targeted messages, huge numbers of messages being posted, and limited tools for generating an overview of the messages in a newsgroup.
A common visualization format for a newsgroup is a vertical text listing of posts arranged generally according to the times they were posted. Threads are illustrated by positioning responsive posts in time sequence immediately under the original post in the thread. While suited for providing a linear listing of accurately titled post topics, this visualization format provides almost no contextual information about relationships between different posters, threads, or groups. In the face of off-topic and poorly targeted messages and large numbers of messages being posted, useful information can be lost or buried in such conventional visualizations.
The present invention provides improved visualizations of relationships or connections in collaborative information relating to network interaction media such as email and email lists, conferencing systems and bulletin boards, chats, multi-user dungeons (MUDs), multi-user games and graphical virtual worlds, etc. These improved visualizations are illustrated with reference to collaborative information relating to threaded message systems such as newsgroups.
In one implementation, network graphs in various display or visualization formats represent collaborative information relating to Usenet newsgroups. Network graphs present information as nodes that are connected together by links. These visualization formats are rendered on a display screen to provide a user with general information about the structure of a newsgroup by graphing relationships between newsgroups, between threads within a newsgroup, between people who post to newsgroups (i.e., posters), etc.
As examples, one visualization format provides an inter-group visualization in which newsgroup nodes are linked together by links representing messages that are cross-posted between the newsgroups. Another visualization format can provide an inter-thread visualization in which thread nodes are linked together by links representing shared posters. Yet another visualization format can provide a thread-to-poster visualization in which poster nodes are linked to threads to which the posters post messages. Still another visualization format can provide an inter-poster visualization in which poster nodes are linked together by shared threads.
The visualizations of relationships or connections in collaborative information relating to network interaction media may be provided by an interactive collaborative information visualization system that includes a database of collaborative information and a database filter to obtain and measure a user-selected portion of the collaborative information. A rendering engine renders a network graphical visualization of the selected portion of the collaborative information.
In one implementation, a graphical user interface allows a user to control the database filter to select the portion of the collaborative information to be obtained and measured. The user interface may include a control that allows the user to select from among multiple visualization formats, in which different formats collaboratively relate different selected portions of the collaborative information. The user interface may also, or alternatively, include a control that allows the user to select an appearance with which to render the network graphical visualization.
Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiment thereof, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.